Stiffening for heels of boots and shoes



y UNITEDv STATES PATENT OEEICE. l

E. M. STEVENS, OF BOSTON, ASSIGNOR TO ALFRED B. ELY, OF NEWTON,

MASSACHUSETTS.

STIFFENING FOR'HEELS OF BOOTS AND SHOES.

Specilcation forming part of Letters Patent No. 39,594, dated August 18, 1363.

To all whom it may concern.: v

Be it known that I, E. M. STEVENS, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and Stale of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Stiffenings for Heels of Boots and Shoes; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the saine, reference being had to the accomnanyiugdrawin g, forming a part of this specilzation. i

The drawing is a perspective full-sized view of one of my stiienings before it is worked into the heel of a boot or shoe.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my improvement, I will now proceed to describe its construction and operation.

Stiffenings for the heels of boots and shoes have been made of solid leather, strips of leather pasted together, pasteboard, and also of india-rubber; but solid leather'is expensive, pasteboa-rd and strips of leather pasted together break down, and, especially after being Wet, are apt to curl, Wrinkle, and lose their stiifness, While stiffenings made Wholly of rubber are too liinber and very expensive.

The nature of my invention, therefore, consists in making a stitfening for the heels of boots and shoes of india-rubber mixed with ground rags or other brous material, whereby I produce a new article of manufacture, waterproof, and at the same time much stiffer and cheaper than stiffenings made entirely of rubber, and in all respects more desirable than any kind of leather or pasteboard.

I do not confine' myself to any particular proportions of rubber and fibrous material, as they may be varied at pleasure, according to the quality of the stiffening required. One part, by Weight, of india rubber, and two parts, by Weight, of fibrous material-such as ground cotton or linen ragsproduce a very excellent article (like the model) Water-proof, so elastic as not to break by being turned over, and at the same time sufficiently stiff for the purpose required. Cotton and linen rags or other suitable brous material, ground, picked,77 or reduced to pulp, are mechanicallyl mixed with the plastic rubber, which is then pressed into the proper shape (having the side A and bottom B) in the usual manner by suitable heated molds.

Stiffenings of this material may be made as cheap as those of leather, and are in all respects preferable to those of any other material hitherto in use for a similar purpose.

Having thus described the nature of my improvement, what I claim as my invention, and desire to 'secure by Letters Patent, is-

As a new article of manufacture for the heels ot boots and shoes, a sti'ening made of india-rubber mixed with ground rags or other suitable fibrous material, substantially as set forth, and for the purpose described.

N. AMES, A. B. ELY. 

